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House Joins Opposition to Trump FCC's Attempt to Gut Net Neutrality

January 16, 2018

Contact: Timothy Karr, 201-533-8838

WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, Rep. Mike Doyle (D–Pennsylvania) announced that 80 fellow House members have joined him in co-sponsoring legislation to reject the Federal Communications Commission’s vastly unpopular Dec. 14 decision to eliminate Net Neutrality.

The legislation is a House companion to the resolution of disapproval from Sen. Ed Markey (D–Massachusetts), which has already garnered support from 50 senators. Under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), the resolution needs simple majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives to pass Congress

Rep. Doyle said today that he will continue to recruit new co-sponsors for his legislation. “There’s overwhelming public support for preserving Net Neutrality, so it’s no surprise that there’s strong support in Congress as well,” he said. A full list of the House co-sponsors is available here.

According to recent polls, strong majorities of both Republican and Democratic voters oppose the FCC decision to gut the Net Neutrality rules. A University of Maryland poll from December 2017 found that more than 83 percent of voters favor keeping the rules, including 75 percent of Republicans, 89 percent of Democrats and 86 percent of independents.

Since December, more than a million people have called Congress to urge their lawmakers to overturn the FCC decision.

Free Press Action Fund President and CEO Craig Aaron made the following statement:

“FCC Chairman Ajit Pai ignited a firestorm of dissent when he and his Republican colleagues voted to gut popular Net Neutrality protections. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have told us they’re getting a flood of phone calls opposing Pai’s decision and supporting efforts to restore the Net Neutrality safeguards put in place in 2015.

“It’s encouraging that more and more elected officials are awakening to the concerns of their constituents. Now Congress must act to reject the FCC’s decision and restore the open-internet rules that were working so well. We’re grateful to these members from all across the country for taking the lead today and urge all their colleagues to support this crucial legislation to save the internet.”